Candidates for Honor Council elections put names on ballot

The Undergraduate Honor Council will hold elections Feb. 23 to select a council of 24 members for the new academic year.

Students may vote for eight candidates from each social class in the elections.

An unlimited number of candidates can compete for the eight spots open to their respective social class.

The e-ballot will be available to students between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. on the election day.

Results will be publicized that evening.

“We had 58 people apply,” Vice Chair of the Undergraduate Honor Council and Chair of the Election Committee Jason Gangwer ’12 said. “Particularly this year, we have seen relatively strong numbers in the sophomore and junior class than perhaps historically.”

In order to publicize the Honor Council prior to elections, the council held twice the usual number of information sessions at the beginning of the semester.

“We ended up getting a really great range of people at all of those meetings, and I was really proud of a lot of transfers and people other than freshmen,” Chair of the Undergraduate Honor Council Zara Stasi ’12 said. “This year our ballot has the most returning freshmen, but the other two classes are represented better than they have been in the past.”

Candidates in the elections are not allowed to campaign in any way.

Instead, candidate profiles are released a week prior to the election.

“Our elections are unique in that there is no campaigning, so candidates aren’t allowed to promote themselves,” Gangwer said. “It is just based on their reputation of being an honorable member of the community. We do release a profile of information.”

In an effort to inform the student body about the candidates without encouraging competition between them, the council added information to the candidate profiles in this election.

“The ballot itself has more information this year about each candidate,” Stasi said. “There are three essay-like questions that are really only about 200 words [maximum]. We really want to give as much information about this as possible.”

In addition to assisting the Honor Council with the election process, Stasi serves on the Honor Systems Review Committee, which is working to make suggestions for improvements to the code.

“Elections are always a hard topic because while we are members of the council, that is when we are discussing our bylaws,” Stasi said. “It is a hard thing to step back and say what is best for the community.”

Gangwer noted the importance to take time to read the candidate biographies and to vote in the upcoming elections.

“It is a really important part of making the Honor Council not just a group of people but a peer-elected and community-supported group of people,” Gangwer said.